Language acquisition

English Language Facts
There are over 600, 000 words in the
English language
 The average educated person knows 20,000
 The average person has deep knowledge of
about 6,000
 Most native speakers of English do not
know a second language
 Most native speakers of English live in
countries where it’s the dominant language


English Language Facts
Over 750 million people speak English
 English is either the official language or
dominant language of 87 countries or
territories
 English is actually not one language but is
a combination of German, French, and
Latin
 Most native speakers of English are literate


American English Facts
Although the dominant language, English is
not the official language of the United
States
 Unlike London in Great Britain, the U.S.
does not have a city which serves as a
standard
 The U.S is the world’s largest producer of
films and videos
 CNN news reaches over 150 countries and
territories


American English Facts
There are 9 recognized American dialects:
Eastern New England, New York City, Middle
Atlantic, Western Pennsylvania, Upper
South, South, Inland North, North West, and
South West
 There are 6 different types of dialects:
regional, occupational, sexual, educational,
age, and social
 There are major differences between
American and British English


Why Learn English?
80% of the world’s information stored in
computers is in English
 English is the international language of
science, communication,
 aviation, and diplomacy
 The United States is the world’s largest
economy
 An Asian/American partnership will
dominate the 21st century


A Brief History of the English Language
English was originally just a dialect of
German called Old English
 In the 11th century, German/ English married
French to form the Middle English Language
 William Shakespeare single-handedly
created the modern English language
 The widespread use of English is due to the
dominance of great Britain in the 19th
century and the U.S. in the 20th


Understanding Language Acquisition

There are four abilities related to language:
Two

are related to oral language: the abilities
to speak and to listen (to comprehend spoken
language).

The

other two are related to written language:
the abilities to read and to write.


Two

of these abilities are passive in that
information is received and processed:
listening and reading.

The

other two are active and require an act of
creation: speaking and writing.
The ability to comprehend spoken language
will come before the ability to speak it.


As

children, we could understand what was
being said to us long before we had the ability
to express our thoughts.

In

school, we were reading fluently long before
we could write expressively.

Mastering

reading will always come before
mastering writing.


Writing

is the most difficult and is the last to be
mastered.

Oral

language and written language are two
completely different skills that activate two
completely separate parts of the brain.


Learning
Learning

to speak occurs naturally.

to read and write requires formal
schooling.


Differences Between Spoken and Written
Language
Our species is over 100,000 years old
We have been speaking for most of that time
Written language only appeared a little over

5,000 years ago.
For most of human history writing did not even
exist.
There are several thousand recognized
languages in the world


For almost every human being on the planet,
our first experience with language is through
the spoken word
 Many can read in a foreign language but
cannot speak that language.
 Oral language is developed independently of
written language.
 Spoken language is the primary way we learn
language.



For almost every human being on the planet,
our first experience with language is through
the spoken word
 As human beings, we all share the same ideas,
or pictures in our heads.
 We all understand the concept of a tree, or a
bird, or a child
 Spoken words are just sound symbols for the
pictures in our heads.



As children we learn to connect specific sounds
to certain things that we see or feel.
There

is a very strong sensual component to
language.
Sound symbols (words) are connected to
something we experience


These sensual experiences create images in
our brains.
 When a sound symbol or word occurs often
enough in connection with that experience,
eventually the sound itself will evoke the
images with out the object itself being
present.



Later in life
We
We

start formal schooling

learn that written symbols can be used as
representations for the sounds

In life our first experience with language comes
orally.
We hear our parents speak and observe how
certain actions or objects have a correlation with
that sound.



That’s

how we first learn language, not by
memorizing or translating.
Nobody has ever learned a language by
first studying its grammar!




Learning language is a process that requires
certain steps in a preferred order.
 Oral Comprehension
 Reading Skills
 Writing
 Grammar

Connecting Written Symbols to Spoken
Symbols
Spoken words are just symbols for ideas: images
that the brain creates as it interprets stimuli.
Written words are just symbols for spoken words.
Everyone must agree on the symbols or there is a
failure to communicate.
This is the reason why speakers of two different
languages cannot communicate.

Symbols
What is a Baum ?
It’s a large plant with
bark, leaves, and
branches growing out
of the ground.
It’s a tree !

Symbols
The written symbol represents the sound
symbol that represents the image in our heads
or the magic won’t work

Symbols
When two speakers do share symbols, something
magical and amazing truly does happen.
William Shakespeare dead for 450 years can talk
to me today.
His mind can touch my mind by traveling
centuries through the magic of symbols that we
call words.

You can share your deepest most intimate
thoughts through the power of words.

Symbols
When writing was first
invented, people
believed that scribes
actually had magical
powers.

Comprehending Language
The ability to decode the communication:
we

must know the basic rules and vocabulary.

We

must be familiar with permissible sentence
structures, parts of speech, the functions and
mechanics of speech and text, grammars rules etc.

The ability to decode a language is probably the
reason most foreign language classes spend so

The flaw in this reasoning is in thinking that written
language and oral language are connected when
in fact they are not.
Formal

grammar, as taught in most foreign
language classes, is a product of writing and must
be taught instructionally.

Natural

grammar, as learned in speech, is
acquired intuitively requiring no official schooling

You cannot teach natural grammar by practicing
formal grammar.
What works for writing does not necessarily work for
speech.

The natural order of language acquisition is listening
comprehension, speech, reading, and finally writing.
Natural grammar acquisition should come before
formal grammar.
When we say decoding skills are necessary to
comprehending language, a distinction must be
made between natural and formal, oral and written
decoding skills.

It is essential to know the most basic vocabulary,
the tier one words.

In order to become fluent in a language, a
student of any language must master a
significant amount of tier two vocabulary words.
•They are encountered frequently across a wide
range of activities.
•These words represent mature language use,
and a deep, rich understanding of these words is
necessary for fluency.

. Your instruction should emphasize these words.
Examples of tier two words would be: facilitate,
analyze, or absurd.

A third level of vocabulary is called tier three.
These words, however, are specialized words rarely
encountered unless one is engaged in a specific
subject, profession, or activity.

Examples of tier three vocabulary would be
scientific or medical terms.
Photosynthesis Amphetamine
Alpha + methyl + phen + ethyl + amine

Once a language learner had the ability to decipher a
language, he could handle most language situations he
encountered.
Research shows that the ability to decipher a language is
only half the battle, and unfortunately most English courses
concentrate 80% of their instruction in this area with
moderate attention paid to the other area required for
comprehensive understanding: that is background
information on the subject being discussed.

Without background knowledge of the
subject matter, comprehension is
impossible.
Most speakers or writers assume that their
audience has basic knowledge of the
subject material.

Knowledge of the culture is essential in
comprehending any second language.
Language is culture: Culture is language.
To help English language students better
understand and comprehend, they must have
background knowledge in the thing that Americans
talk about.

Vocabulary is #1
There are over 600,000 words and some
estimates go as high as a million.
English has three times more words than the
next closest language: which is Chinese.
English has so many words is that it’s really a
combination of three complete languages:
German, French, and Latin.
At its heart, English is really one of these
languages: German.
80% of the words that come out of a native
speaker’s mouth everyday are German.

Vocabulary is #1
Why not teach Grammar?
•English grammar is based on Latin grammar.
•Trying to fit a German language into a Latin
structure is like trying to fit a square peg into a
round hole.

Vocabulary is #1
English has at least three different ways to say
the exact same thing.
United States has historically been an immigrant
friendly country, you find that many other
cultures and languages have had their words
adopted and assimilated by English.

Vocabulary is #1
•All anyone really needs to function quite adequately in
any language is to have deep knowledge of about
10,000 words.
•Vocabulary plays a major role in the communication
of understanding. language proficiency is directly
related to vocabulary knowledge.
•The top 5% wealthiest people in American society are
usually the top 5% that know the most words.

Vocabulary is #1
Learning spoken language comes naturally
Written language must be taught.
There is a natural progression to language
learning: listening comprehension, speaking,
reading, and finally writing.
What worked as children also works as an
adult.
The fact is oral language is still the best way
to increase our vocabularies.

Vocabulary is #1
If we cannot pronounce a work, our brains will have
a hard time retaining it.
An accurate pronunciation of a word supports
vocabulary acquisition.
If you can’t pronounce it, you won’t use it.
If we know a word well enough to pronounce it,
we will also use it when we write.

Vocabulary is #1
It does not work the other way around.
•If we come across a word that we don’t know, we
may look up the word in a dictionary.
• We may now understand how the word is used
in writing, but if we do not take the time to
pronounce the word, to sound it out, then the next
time we come across the same word, chances
are we will have to look it up again because we
will have forgotten the meaning.

Vocabulary is #1
•Learning a word’s meaning from a dictionary is
not the same as knowing a word. No one has
ever learned how to use a word by studying
dictionary definitions.

Which Vocabulary Words are the Best?
Basic words repeated in speech and found in
everyday conversation do not require an active
effort, but some other words require conscious
targeted effort to be learned and assimilated.
Basic words that occur quite frequently in everyday
conversation are called tier one words.
After a basic vocabulary has been established, it’s
important to choose words worthy of instruction to
add to the student’s personal lexicon.

New vocabulary should be made up of words that
students don’t know well but that have a high
likelihood of being encountered in the future.
The best choice for instruction is a collection of
tier two type words.

Tier two vocabulary words are more
sophisticated words that occur frequently in a
large number of situations.
They are the domain of mature language users
and signal fluency in the English language.

Tier three words are specialized words, often
related to scientific or medical terms, and are
descended from Latin and Greek.
These words are rarely encountered outside their
specialty areas and therefore can be ignored by
English language teachers.

Tier two words are the most useful and they give
a more accurate description than the more
general tier one words.
How can we know whether a word is tier one, two,
or even tier three vocabulary?
Words of Germanic origin tend to be the most basic
words that are reinforced in speech.

Tier two words are either French or Latin or
perhaps a word borrowed from another language.
They are found frequently in both speech and in
writing and can be used in a variety of settings.
They provide an accuracy of description that simply
goes beyond the capabilities of basic words. They
can be used in a variety of situations and in a
variety of contexts..

Tier three words are rarely used outside of their
own specific domain.

Knowing a Word
Level 1: You have no knowledge of this word
Level 2: You’ve seen the word before and can
identify it as a noun, verb, etc but can’t really
define it.
Level 3: You may have a general sense of the
word or know whether it’s positive or negative but
don’t have a deep understanding of it.

Knowing a Word

Level 4: You can give a definition of the word and
can recognize its meaning in a sentence but
would never use it.
Level 5: You understand both literal and figurative
meanings of the word, and it’s part of your working
vocabulary.

Knowing a Word
1 General knowledge: You can define the word
2 Applicable knowledge: You recognize when the
word’s used correctly
3 Breath of knowledge: You know multiple
meanings of a word

Knowing a Word
4 Precise knowledge: You understand subtle
differences between this and similar words
5 Available knowledge: You feel confident using
the word in speech and writing. You know what
situations to use the word correctly.

How to Learn English Vocabulary
Translating and memorizing words simply do
not work!
We recommend two proven strategies:
•using visualization
•prior knowledge.

Create a mental picture in your head of the action
or object that the word describes.
What we are doing is associating a mental picture
with that word.
Remember, this is exactly what you did as a child to
learn your first language.


Don’t forget that all words, written or oral, are merely
symbols for ideas.
Common meaning transports a picture in one
person’s head into the mind of another.
Although visualization works for both spoken and
written symbols, there is a natural process that
language development takes.
Vocabulary acquisition works best if you first learn
the word orally.

The next strategy we recommend is the use of prior
knowledge.
Students learn and remember best when new
information can be connected to old information.
Research shows that prior knowledge is a major
factor in language comprehension.
It is human nature to try to fit new knowledge with
something we already know.

Code Switching: mentally translating what is said
or written in English into their native language
The mind makes a distinction between the two
languages, and time is wasted in the translation.
It’s better to integrate the new language, in this
case English, into the old language, relying on prior
knowledge.

Which is easier,
adding a new word in one’s native tongue
or
learning a completely new language?

How to Teach English Vocabulary
The first step in teaching new vocabulary word is
introducing the word to the class.
•Pronounce the word
•Have them practice saying it
•Introduce a student friendly definition
•Relate new words with past experience (prior
knowledge)
•Emphasize relationships among words
Connect it to a mental picture not a written word

The next step is to ask students for other words
associated with the new word.
Association does not mean a definition: It means
making connections.
The more associations we have with a word,
the better we know it.

For example, here are some word associations:
beach- sand, waves, ocean breeze, bathing
suits, sun
aviation- planes, landing strips, airports,
wings
calamity- tsunami, car accident, earthquake,
famine, stock market crash

The last step towards assimilating new words is by
using the word in context.
In other words, creating real life situations or sentences
in which the word is used.
A tsunami is a calamity that cost many people their
lives.
Losing his fortune was a calamity he could not recover
from.
A nuclear meltdown is calamity that will affect the
environment for decades.

•A few other tips that will help a classroom teacher
maximize his student’s word power are:
•Limit new words to seven a day. Any more than
that and the student will be overwhelmed.
•When explaining a word’s meaning, start with its
most typical use. Do not give all of a word’s
meanings. Too many meanings can be
overwhelming. Integrate additional meanings as a
student’s understanding of a word grows.

•People learning a second language can
assimilate words efficiently if the vocabulary
presented have contrasts: in other words, if
they are not part of a group. For example, a
collection of vocabulary words such as: chair,
student, building, car, and zebra will be
integrated more quickly than lion, tiger,
panther, and cheetah.

•Segmenting difficult words into smaller chunks
makes them easier to learn.
•Knowing a lot of words in your native tongue
makes it easier to learn a second language.
•The more words you know, the more money you
will make in your lifetime. This is a true fact that
will help motivate children to learn words.

Classroom Strategies for Improving
Oral Comprehension
Language learning combines ideas, images, and
symbols: not memorizing definitions, rules, and
grammatical terms.
A conversation requires two or more people.
Vocabulary learning works best when words are
presented for group discussion.

Oral Comprehension
Interacting orally with peers effectively plants new
words in growing minds.
There is much research that supports the idea that
children simply learn better in groups.
Oral interaction builds knowledge and helps
students think creatively, and as we have seen,
creative thinking is essential in building oral
comprehension because we are learning concepts

Oral Comprehension

Oral language must dominate in the classroom, so
written language is kept to a minimum.
Written language is only used in support of oral
language.

Oral Comprehension
We teach oral vocabulary by using associations,
connecting words to familiar real world images or
to a student’s own past experiences, thereby
building relationships between a word and our
mental images of it.
There are several ways a teacher can do this.

Oral Comprehension
Show the class pictures with no written
explanation and opening up the images to
class discussion.
•These pictures should be of familiar everyday
scenes or be about subjects that interest the
students.
•The idea is to get them to connect English with
common and well-known themes.

Oral Comprehension
•Ask students for words or phrases to describe the
picture.
•After completing their description, quickly give
them the English equivalent.
•Have them pronounce the word or phrase several
times, as they examine the picture.
•Have the students should keep a journal of new
vocabulary.

Oral Comprehension
A second strategy for orally assimilating English
vocabulary is by storytelling.
•Reading stories aloud without the written text to
fall back on creates images in the student’s mind
• Research shows that being read to increases
verbal comprehension.

Oral Comprehension
•Encourage students to interrupt and ask
questions when they hear something they do not
comprehend.
• Asking questions eliminates misunderstandings
and expands a child’s background knowledge.

Oral Comprehension
Have

students take turns reading the story to the class or
have them retell it in their own words.

Having

students summarize what they have heard is a
powerful tool for improving oral abilities.

Reading

and acting out plays make much more sense
than having students read from a grammar book.

Group

discussion and interactions such as those
described above instill a deep and broad understanding
of the subject being considered.

Segmenting Information
Researchers have known for quite some time that
breaking large segments of information into smaller
pieces makes it easier for the human brain to digest that
information.
The official word used for this concept is chunking.
The research deals with assimilating data in general, but
the principle can easily be applied to language learning
specifically. Some researchers believe that knowledge
of chunking can advance ESL students to native-like
proficiency.

ESL student who wants to communicate in
English must become familiar with these
everyday American expressions.
Idioms are good examples of these types of
expressions.
They are figures of speech that convey meaning
by
creating an image.

Knowing the meanings of the individual
words will not help the ESL student.
Some examples would be:
Flying off the handle (become angry)
Barking up the wrong tree (make an
incorrect assumption)

Most sentences contain two or more word strings
that can stand by themselves as units of thought.
Ways of segmenting a sentence into smaller
more easily understood parts would be:
•prepositional phrases
•subject-verb
•verb-direct object
•verb-adverb
•adjective-noun

Examples of segmenting possible sentence
elements into smaller more easily understood units
could be:
 Prepositional phrases- with the soldiers, out of the
bushes, across the night sky
 Verb-adverb combinations- glanced outside,
awoke too early, slept soundly
 Adjective-nouns- numerous little legs, heavy rain
clouds, a steep rocky cliff:
 Verb- direct object- struck a tree, deposit money,

As heavy rain clouds drifted across the night sky,
Jack glanced outside while lightning illuminated
the room.

By breaking language into smaller more manageable
parts, a sentence like the one above can be easily
mastered and spoken with complete fluency.
Difficult vocabulary words can also be segmented and
made more easily understood. Consider the following
multi-syllable words: synonymous, hibernate, and
compromise.

sy non y nous

hi ber nate

com pro mise

By breaking complex words into smaller units,
students will not be so intimidated ( in tim i dat ed ).

By becoming familiar with the prefixes, suffixes,
and roots that English has acquired from these
languages, students can figure out a word’s
meaning from the context in which it’s used..

Take the word graph: a Greek root word that
means “ to write”. By combining it with some
prefixes and suffixes, we can figure out what a
word means even if we have never seen it before.
Homo is a prefix that means “the same”. If we
combine it with graph, we have homograph: words
that are “spelled (written) the same”. Phone
means “sound”; homophones are words that
“sound the same”.

Tele is a prefix that means “distance”, so telegraph
is a way to “send writing long distances”.
Cal is a prefix that means “beautiful”; hence,
calligraphy is defined as “beautiful writing”.
Scope means “to see”: telescope therefore means
to “see great distances”.
Micro means “small”: microscope means to “see
small things”.

Using Figures of Speech in Language
Learning
Figurative language however desires to express a
meaning far deeper and wider than the sum of the
words themselves.
Figurative language creates mental images, and as
we have discovered, connecting mental pictures to
sound symbols is the key to increasing oral
comprehension.
Understanding idioms is essential for proficiency in
a language.

Learning
Other types of figurative language are
metaphors and similes.
These two types make comparisons between
unlike things.
By creating mental pictures, common metaphors
and similes convey a large amount of information
with a limited amount of words.
Language teachers can use figures of speech to
enhance language learning by creating deeper
understandings.

Learning
The following are examples of metaphors and
similes:
He eats like a pig. (simile)
Sue has an angelic (angel-like) face.
Jack has a giant problem.
Jack’s behaving like an ogre. (simile)
Sue is so angry that she’s ready to explode.
Sue’s heart is as cold as a witch. (simile)
Jack’s an extremely bright student.

English Sand Traps
In the game of golf, a sand trap is a place where
golfers get stuck.
Therefore, English sand traps are a place where
ESL students get stuck.

English Sand Traps
Nothing causes more confusion for English
language learners ( and native speakers too) than
homographs and homophones.
Examples are:
the adjective close (meaning nearby) and the
verb close (meaning to shut)
the noun bow (a weapon that shoots arrows)
and the verb bow (to bend)

English Sand Traps
Homophones are words that sound the say but are
spelled differently.
Some common examples would be to/too/two.
To is a preposition that shows direction, as in
Jack walked to the store.
Too is an adverb that means also. Sue walked
there too.
Two is the spelling for the number 2, as in: The

English Sand Traps
English has many words that have similar
denotative (dictionary) meanings but different
connotative meanings.
A connotative meaning is an emotional feeling that
could be positive or negative that is part of the
word.
Examples of these words are:
thin / scrawny chubby / fat curious / nosey.

English Sand Traps
SLANG
Young people, in order to separate themselves
form their parents, invent new words or give old
words new meaning.
BLING PHAT(FAT) BAD WICKED

Jack is the baddest basketball player in the
neighborhood means he is the best. Those are
wicked shoes that Sue is wearing means that
you like Sue’s shoes.

Recommended Resources
Websites:
http://activenglish.wz.cz/vocabulary.html
http://world-english.org/
Books:
NTC’s Dictionary of Everyday English
Expressions- this book is the best for learning
American English and enhancing oral
comprehension than any grammar book.
Multimedia: Improve Your English Accent &
Pronounce It perfectly in English

Language acquisition

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